Sam Smith: Could the NCAA tournament foreshadow the NBA playoffs?

Perhaps this NCAA tournament is going to be a harbinger for the NBA season in this most unusual year for sports. And also why it's not too late to keep looking forward for a lot of teams, including the Bulls.

At 19-23 and hanging onto a tie for the 9/10 play-in spots with Indiana coming into Wednesday's game with Cleveland, the Bulls haven't suggested excellence.

But neither did teams like Oral Roberts, Oregon State, Oregon, Syracuse, Ohio and Abilene Christian in a first weekend of tournament games that produced the most upsets (wins against teams ranked at least five places ahead) in NCAA history. It's something that all the sports leagues both feared and predicted, in part, because of the…